Pumpkin Patch

The church pumpkin patch was last night. The weather again was just perfect. It was a little chilly, but not bad at all with the sun shining bright.

Here's Miss Piggy and Kermie. His costume came in the mail on Thursday and it was too small. I have no idea what they were thinking, but it was labeled size 2-4, but then on the packaging it said for ages 1-2. Oh well. We managed to squeeze him in it and he didn't complain, even though his hat barely velcroed shut. He did want to know where his red Kermit mouth was though. How cute are they!

And how lucky am I that I got one more year of coordinating costumes out of them? I don't know why, but it gives me great pleasure to have them matching for Halloween and I will be sad when they won't humor me.

This was during the trunk or treat portion of the night. Robert had just stuffed half a cookie in his mouth and ended up spitting it into Chris' hand. What a sport!

And then I handed the camera over to Chris. Every time I ask him to take a picture, he just starts snapping before I'm ready. Half the time he just lowers the camera, not looking through the view finder mind you, and starts snapping away. He'll take 20 pictures, and usually the one that has us centered and looking is blurry. This time he caught a perfect picture of me with my "I am not amused" face.

That's better. Clara eventually started shedding pieces of her costume. Her nose was the first to come off and I didn't even know she lost a glove until I found it on a table at church this morning with several other lost and found items from the night before.

Stuffing his face with a cupcake on the way out.

Friends and Fireworks

The rest of the 4th was low key. We had naps and then friends over for some grilling. 

Robert enjoyed his watermelon immensely. He took it for rides in his wagon and I caught him rubbing it on his belly. It eventually got eaten, I think.

After dinner we loaded up and headed to Jill's bookstore to watch the fireworks. We got there early and hung out in the a/c browsing books until it was time for them to start. The kids were a little excited about the fireworks.

I guess I should say most of the kids. This guy would've been just fine skipping the show. Methinks he's not a fan of loud noises. He sat in the car and played the entire time. He turned every knob, pushed every button and pulled everything that wasn't bolted down out of it's spot.

Clara was jumping for joy and shouting "Fireworks! Fireworks! Fireworks!" during the majority of the show. Have you noticed that most of the time, I don't even try to wrap up my posts with a conclusion anymore? It's like, boom! Post over.

4th of July Parade

Dan and Linda joined us for the July 4th festivities. We had initially planned to go to the patriotic concert the night of the 3rd, but an hour or so before it was supposed to start, it started thundering and I just didn't want to mess with going even if there was a hint of a downpour. We enjoyed a nice leisurely dinner at Katz's instead.

The next morning we got up nice and early so we could secure a shady spot at the parade. We got there just in time to get one of the last spots. But that meant we had lots of time to kill before the street performers arrived. The kids were pretty tired (and sugared up) by the time everything got started.

Finally, some entertainment. Clara loved the mime for some odd reason. (Side note: Chris says the first thing he would do if he ever became invisible would be to beat up a mime. It would be  the performance of their lifetime.)

Clara got a glittery star stamped on her temple and they both got balloon animals.

Good thing Grandma was there to cover sensitive little ears when the firetrucks came by wailing.

When the parade first started, a horse dropped a little surprise for the rest of the parade-goers. I have to preface this by saying that in Pecos, 90% of the parade is comprised of horses, so this isn't an unusual occurance. But here, there were two horses pulling a wagon and I believe that was the extent of equine participants.

At first we were a bit grossed out because we were so close to the pile. But then? Hilarity ensued. The looks on people's faces as they caught sight of it were awesome. Some never saw it and stepped right in it before jumping away. The boy scouts thought it was funny. The twirlers and and other girls, not so much. Those in flip flops, as well as us observers, cringed as they stepped in it and one dog even grabbed a quick snack. Oh my goodness, everyone around us was laughing and just waiting for people's reactions. Hands down, the best part of the parade. I got lucky and caught this girl's expression as she noticed it.

Someone was hot and tired and scared of the loud sirens. The end couldn't have come soon enough for him. In fact, it didn't. There were large gaps in the parade and then it just came to a standstill for about 10 minutes, so we left a few minutes early.

Easter

The kids woke this morning to Easter baskets filled with goodies. As part of simplifying, their baskets each held only a few things. They each got a chocolate bunny, a $1 coin, a marshmallow lollipop and a couple other small things. Even though it wasn't much, it was plenty and they loved what they received. Sweet Clara promptly decided that she would put her coin in the collection plate at church this morning.

The sun was a little bright as we left for church. I'm so proud of my boy; he kept his tie on all the way through lunch! I thought for sure it wouldn't make it out of the house before being ripped off. I didn't get the kids official Easter clothes this year in yet another effort to simplify. This was big for me. I usually want an extra special dress for Clara or want them to coordinate, but I realized that's completely unnecessary. I just had her pick one of the dresses I got for her several months ago to be her Easter dress and she waited until today to wear it. And Robert got a $3.00 tie from Target to make his Easter outfit special.

After church, we went to lunch at Pappasitos. They had Easter eggs for the kids and the Easter bunny was walking around mingling with everyone. And when we got home, lo and behold, for the first time ever, the Easter bunny had visited our back yard!

I love Clara's expression in this next photo.

But I love this photo even more because she just placed that obviously extra special egg in her little brother's basket.

I can safely say that this shark shaped egg was Robert's favorite.

They each got about 10 eggs and were ecstatic with their findings.

A perfect, simple Easter.

Ringing in the New Year

The day after Christmas, Chris and I decided to take full advantage of grandparents and go see the new Sherlock Holmes movie. I think this was the first time we've gone out without the kids since our trip to Europe in the spring, so it was time. And then we went out again on Friday! We hired a babysitter for the first time in I don't know how long. I know it was a first for Robert. He's only ever stayed with Chris' parents or friends while I went to a doctor's appointment. Not that he knew any better though; we put him to bed right before we left for our party and stayed asleep the whole night.

We had a fun time at our kid-free New Years' Eve eve party and were the first to leave at almost 1:00 am. Clara loved having a babysitter. She got to watch a movie, eat popcorn, play video games and stay up late. They even broke out the slap bracelet kit she got for Christmas and made some totally awesome bracelets.

Then on Saturday, we went back over to Glenn and Becky's for an early New Years celebration. We initially planned to ring in the new year over at their house, but since they were up super late the night before, we decided to just let the kids have fun for a few hours and call it good.

Clara loaded up her arms with bracelets before we left home so Leah and Kate could pick which ones they wanted. My sweet girl even handed them out to 2 or 3 of Leah's neighbor friends. They were so cute and I kept hearing them telling Clara how sweet she was. I love that I could see true joy in her face as she passed them out.

The kids played in the cul-de-sac with all of the neighbor kids (I'm totally jealous of their cul-de-sac, by the way) for a long time. Then we brought out the silly string.



I love this action shot of the silly string.


Robert was enamored with their inflatable nativity. I looked over at one point and he was giving the inflatable baby Jesus a kiss. Too sweet.


We headed back inside for some pizza and then took a quick jaunt to New York to do a little celebrating in Times Square for a few minutes. Love Clara's creepy eyes in this next photo.




Robert dug through cabinets until he found the perfect party hat for himself. The boy knows how to party it up.


The kids had to work for their cheap party favors. These crackers weren't giving up without a fight.


We went back outside so the kids could pop fireworks. I don't know my fireworks, so I have no idea what they were called. I do know this was a sparkler though.


Robert did not like the fireworks. Chris took him and walked a long ways away to watch from a distance and he was ok with that for awhile.



Then he decided to watch from the car. He liked this plan the best.


Clara was jumping on those popper things here.


We got home around 8:30, put Robert to bed and then let Clara stay up until midnight. We played video games and watched something (though I can't recall what). We counted down at midnight, shouted "Happy New Year", gave our kisses and were in bed by 12:05 :)